Postal workers on Long Island busted for stealing pot packages

The postal workers apparently identified the packages containing illicit drugs by the mailing origin in California and the suspicious shape of the parcel. (MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS)

Eight U.S. postal workers were busted Wednesday for stealing packages stuffed with marijuana from a Long Island mail processing center, authorities said.

Investigators began focusing on the postal facility in Bethpage last July after three empty Priority Mail packages were found in the backyard of an abandoned house in North Babylon.

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A drug-sniffing police dog confirmed the odor of marijuana on the three packages, according to court papers.

It was determined that the packages had been sorted and processed at the Bethpage facility, and a review of surveillance video showed postal worker Kempleton Nash, Jr. sneaking out a fire escape door carrying large packages like the ones found discarded in the backyard.

Checking the facility's video going back to May 3, Nash and his co-conspirators allegedly stole 263 packages suspected of containing narcotics from the processing center.

After stealing the packages, the employees put new address labels on them — called "overlabeling" — so they could be delivered to new destinations in Long Island or Queens where the drugs could be sold.

"Abusing their positions of trust as postal employees, the defendants allegedly stole hundreds of packages to further their drug dealing efforts," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.

The postal workers apparently identified the packages containing illicit drugs by the mailing origin in California and the suspicious shape of the parcel.

"United States Priority Mail parcels have become the method of choice for drug dealers for the covert transportation and distribution of controlled substances, including marijuana," U.S. Postal Service special agent Steven Demayo stated in the complaint.

The feds executed search warrants on a dozen overlabeled packages, seizing 129 pounds of pot valued at up to $930,000, officials said.